US telecommunications equipment maker CommScope will acquire Arris, in a $7.4B deal valued at $5.69 billion, with the difference comprised of CommScope’s assumption of Arris’s debt. As part of the deal, the Carlyle Group will make a $1M equity investment in CommScope for an approximate 16% stake in the new company.
CommScope’s CEO Eddie Edwards has claimed the two companies’ product lines are complementary, and that the combined company will “enable end-to-end wired and wireless communications infrastructure solutions that neither company could otherwise achieve on its own.”
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2019.

On April 4th, the US Office of the Trade Representative published a list of 1,300 products that could be subjected to an additional 25% import tariff if coming from China. Flat panel TVs are included on this list, and given the very low margins on the bulk of entry level TVs, and the fact that many of the smaller in mid-sized TVs are imported fully assembled from China, it could have a very big impact on the entire TV market.
The attached report breaks down the details of the possible tariff, and the impacts on the supply chain, as well as possible reactions.
Of course, it is important to note that this list of products is under a 60 day review process, and we expect heavy lobbying on the part of manufacturers and trade organizations. The outcome or final list could change before the end of May.

Display shipments for notebook PCs are forecast to increase by 5 percent in 2017 to 177 million units compared to the previous year, while notebook PC unit shipments are expected to remain flat during the same period.

Panel demand from South Korean and Chinese TV makers is expected to pick up in the third quarter of 2017, after recording lower-than-planned panel purchases in the second quarter, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

The production of Q (quarter) panels is an emerging business model for Chinese and Taiwanese tablet panel makers which shifts more of the panel production process to Chinese solution providers. Through this process, Jason Hsu, senior analyst in IHS, reports that both the panel maker and the solution provider benefit.